Thirteen Hours - Thirteen Gifts
by FoxyBoxy
Summary: A journey can change any person. Sarah Williams can testify that. Almost thirteen years have passed since the events of Labyrinth. Ever since she found a special gift on her sixteenth birthday and beyond, Sarah's life became even more unpredictable. But was it all her doing? Or was she inspired by the least expected source?
1. Beginnings - Prologue

**Thirteen Hours, Thirteen Gifts**

 **Chapter 1 – Beginnings (Prologue)**

 _Winter, Circa 1987_

The first gift was a bracelet.

It wasn't any ordinary bracelet. It was a bracelet made out of pure ivory, shaped like an elephant's tusk. On the side, Sarah couldn't help but notice a distinctive white owl closing the clasp of the bracelet. At first, she played the fool. She went to ask her stepmother if this was her birthday present, saying that she found it in a parcel addressed for her. Irene looked quizzically, but replied immediately that she wasn't the one who bought the gift.

Although, since she now happened to work at a jewellery shop, she was very impressed by it. Even by the naked eye, you could tell it was worth a lot.

"Whoever bought this must like you very much." Irene considered. "Are you sure it was addressed for you? Surely no ordinary boy could afford such an expensive gift, especially for a girl your age."

There she goes again. Immediately assuming she received it from an admirer.

Never mind Sarah had a good suspect as to _who_ that admirer was… but that wasn't important.

 _Yet._

"Sarah." Sarah snapped up from her thoughts.

"Sorry, I was kind of thinking." Irene sighed. "Fine, fine. But if you ever received another gift such as this, tell me immediately. Don't want this to- ", she stopped herself.

"I don't want this person to get too comfortable with you, whoever he is. Who knows, without knowing who he is or where he's from, he could be a crazy person. And god knows how many creeps there are out there right now…"

 _Don't want this to be like what happened with your mother._ Sarah mentally completed. She sighed. It's not that she hated Irene anymore. She did once.

More than anything in the world.

In her eyes, she had represented everything that went wrong in her father and mother's failed marriage. Not that her mangled parent helped. Less than six months after her mother broke her father's and her own heart, he dated and married Irene without wanting any feedback from his estranged daughter, all in what felt like mere days. Perhaps he considered her too young to consult in those _things_. Sarah could only chuckle now. Maybe he was right. She did see her biological mother as a walking goddess who could do no harm little over a year ago. Still, Sarah couldn't help back then but resent her father's rush into finding someone else straight after the breakup, rather than help to cope with her mother's elopement together.

In the end, it did leave her feeling abandoned by both of her parents.

After her mother left the both of them, Irene showed up. Who happened to be the perfect scapegoat for Sarah to vent her anger towards her mother on. Who else could have taken the role? Her father was too easy. Irene fitted it perfectly. By taking her father away from her again and bringing a new son in the family, to literally take her place away as the only child in her remaining parent's eyes.

Sarah's mood darkened, but not out of hatred.

 _No wonder I had seen Irene as a witch who came straight from a fantasy movie… still, what happened wasn't her fault. Especially when Toby-_

 _Wait, what was that? Is she rambling about the dangers of rock and satanic rituals again?_

 _I zone her out for one minute, I swear…_

"Yes, yes, you're right." she quipped. "I will tell you next time, mother."

Irene stopped her free lecture and let out a small, dramatic gasp. _What a drama queen._ Sarah mused, barely resisting the urge to roll her eyes. _Surely, I wasn't like that-_

 _Yes, you were._ A tiny voice said in her head.

 _You haven't been like that since-_

"T-that's very good of you Sarah." Irene told her, obviously red-faced with how she called her earlier. "Now, remember what I told you. You can keep that gift. But… should you receive another one like it, you _have_ to tell me immediately. Like that, I won't tell your father about this. Understood?"

"Yes, Irene." _Was she disappointed I didn't feed her ego this time?_

Her tiny smile was gone. _Guess so._

"Good. I hope you enjoyed your birthday party with your friends."

"Yes, I have." _Quite a lot actually._ Sarah smiled, as she remembered her newly acquired rock album-

"And next time you introduce me to your friends, call me your mother okay?"

"Understood." _Mother._ Sarah smiled a little as Irene walked away, barely hiding her disappointment.

Sarah couldn't help but look on. How things change. Before, she used to be angry at anything Irene told her or pulled off in order to impress her or gain her affection. She cringed at a memory of her, her father and stepmother at a theatre watching the play "The Alchemist". She had made such a huge tantrum that time… it didn't help that that was the day her dad decided to tell her that he was going to marry Irene. And on her mother's birthday no less.

 _What a coincidence daddy forgot._

She shook her head. _That's the old Sarah talking. You're not the same person anymore._

She sighed. Perhaps she was being too harsh on her father. He felt the same pain she did, when her mother, his wife, walked out that door without even leaving a letter for her so called family. He coped in a different way. He was made out of flesh and blood, just like her. He did come to apologise in time.

Now, if only he hadn't brought Irene and Toby into her life as fast as he did. Or maybe had been a little more considerate towards her own feelings in the matter.

Maybe she would've accepted them sooner-

 _Ah…_ the tiny voice reappeared. _But then you wouldn't have met **him**._

Sarah stopped. She looked at the bracelet again.

Of course she didn't forget him. How could she. The second she saw the bracelet on her desk, she immediately realised who the sender was. There was no package. The bracelet was found in a purple purse made out of silk, with a barely legible scribble attached to it.

' _From King to Sarah. Happy Nameday. Fragile, do not drop.'_

Heh. You'd think a King would have better things to do than remember the birthday of the one person who defeated his whole kingdom. If his surprise gift wasn't so unexpected, she would've dropped the item out of sheer laughter.

To be honest, she expected a snake coming out of it the second she opened it. _Didn't he say he'll want his revenge someday?_ That stopped her tracks.

Did he? Did he now?

And if he did so before, what does he want from her now?

Sarah couldn't help but see the balcony of her room. Its door was slightly ajar.

She could only wince. Painful memories surfaced. It was one of the worst days of her life.

Coincidentally, that's also when she saw him for the first time.

He was so good in playing the villain for her that day.

There she was. Fifteen years old. Still oblivious and naïve at how the world works. Lost and abandoned by everyone who claimed that loved her. She must've been quite a sight.

Bitterly, Sarah looked at her past self, holding Toby aloft for the Goblin King to steal him away, chanting away those horrible words. It felt really good, abandoning her baby brother to someone else's care like that. Looking back, she was only fooling herself, honestly believing that that's what the grownups surrounding her were doing to her.

She almost lost her brother because of that.

 _My mother abandoned me for that bastard Jeremy._ She had thought during the incantation. _Let's see how **you** like it when your sister abandons you to those dastardly goblins! _ Pah. So dramatic. She wouldn't have been better than those so-called grownups.

Sarah sighed. She thought she was passed this.

 _I can't decide whether to keep this or toss it far, far away from me._

The bracelet gleamed in the moonlight, almost in a smiling manner.

Sarah smiled back. Not everyone can carry proof that they challenged a King and won.

Perhaps, for now, it was best to keep it.

Sarah re-entered her room and started playing her favourite song from Velvet Underground. Looking at her birthday cards and presents she received from friends and family, she specifically looked at the gifts given to her by her parents, but couldn't care less for the materialistic items. Instead, she opened her cards. She couldn't help but read one in particular. The one that was written with care by her parents.

Despite all the failed attempts at poetry and lots of side musings by them, the final sentence was the one she couldn't stop reading over and over.

 _"You're sixteen now Sarah. You won't be a child forever. But you'll always be one for us. Love you, your mum, dad and your baby brother Toby OXOXOXO"_

Sarah smiled. She couldn't help it.

It's true. A lot of things change in a year. But Sarah wasn't ready to let go of her mother.

Not yet.

Although she had accepted Irene as her new parent (she made her father happy and that's what was important) she wasn't going to call her what she wanted to hear that easily.

 _Don't want to get too attached either._ Sarah bitterly added.

Still, at least she had a family again. A father, a mother and a brother. A family she was a part of again. It wasn't perfect, but what is.

A family she wasn't letting go of ever again. That was for sure.

The bracelet gleamed in the moonlight.

Doubts resurface.

A lot of things can change in time.

 **Author's Notes**

 **Return to Labyrinth never happened okay? No one can tell me otherwise.**

 **Also, hello. First fan fic ever written. I'm a late bloomer I suppose. Please rate and review.**


	2. Departure - Bracelet

**Thirteen hours, Thirteen gifts**

 **Chapter 2 – Bracelet**

 _Winter, Circa 1987_

Imagine, for a second, that Peter Pan, the immortal child from the fables was real.

100% real.

Then, imagine he challenged you to find his shadow somewhere in Neverland, his home turf, in exchange for your brothers' lives in less than thirteen hours.

Then, against all the odds, imagine yourself, as Wendy, tying Pan's shadow alongside him, despite all of his efforts and protests, as she triumphantly returned to her homeland alongside her beloved siblings. All before the stroke of midnight by the mighty Big Ben.

Sarah smiled. Whoever said she didn't have imagination?

 _And the cheating. Don't forget all of that cheating._

To be fair, before she received the gift, she thought that she had imagined all of the events she had experienced in the Labyrinth.

It was like a really good fairy-tale. A misunderstood heroine, going to the rescue of her baby brother in distress, championing against the ruler of all goblins and wicked elements, who kidnapped her brother out of sheer boredom. Alongside her heroic band of misfits...

Never mind that her brother was in distress _because_ of said heroine.

Never mind the heroine not being that different from the so-called villain.

Never mind the villain being… well. What's a word for him? Bombastic? Pompous? Spoilt?

 _How about opportunistic?_ Hmm, close.

 _Self-centred? Vain? Flamboyant?_ Almost. _Insufferable?_

Dammit. Too many words to choose from.

Sarah took a deep breath. She raised her hand towards her face. The bracelet was still there. It's shaped like an owl's wing. Only now she noticed that.

There were words inscribed on it. _Sed non-in Peppe_ \- _pet_ \- urgh. It better not another spell of his. Maybe it would turn her into a frog this time, Sarah mused.

Still... will it be there tomorrow? Or was she still dreaming?

Old Sarah would've dramatically monologued at how confused she was by the Goblin King's mixed signals. Did he want to start everything over, or was he mocking her? To get to Toby? Now, Sarah was just curious. Did he want to be remembered?

Is that it? To not be just a memory?

But then… why not come in per-

 **KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK**

Three knocks in an uninterrupted row. Must be her father.

"Coming!" Sarah got up from her bed and opened the door.

"'ello pumpkin." Her dad was calling her with her old nickname again. "Happy 16th birthday!"

"Yes- ack, Dad I love you too," Sarah could barely say, as her father quickly gave her a bear hug.

 _I'm so gonna feel that tomorrow morning._ "Thank you for the presents."

Robert gleamed.

"Anything for you sweetheart." Robert said. "I'm glad you liked them! How did the party go- say, what's that you have? Did you receive it from one of your friends?"

 _Shit!_ Sarah thought. She kept her bracelet on!

"Umm… Irene gave this to me as a present!" Sarah mumbled. "Isn't it lovely? She said it came from Gh-Ghana. I like it a lot." _Don't notice my stuttering, best puppy eyes impression…_

It worked.

"Ah, that's wonderful." Robert smiled. "You're finally appreciating each other!"

Sarah sighed. That's her father alright. Always as neutral as the Swiss.

"Now err, about Irene. A-about us." Robert stammered. "We were wondering… we need to tell you about something. Something important." Not quite as diplomatic though.

"Hmm?" Sarah asked. "Well," her father continued. "Can Irene join us?"

 _Irene wants to be here too? This is serious_.

"Of course she can. No need to ask."

Less than a minute after, Irene entered the room. She sat next to her father, who already looked like a deer caught in the headlights. Sarah patiently waited her dad to continue.

"We chose to tell you today because it's your birthday, your special day. This is really important." Robert continued. "And we wanted to tell you this together so then you'll know that we have your future in our top most priority." _Ah._ She knew what was coming next.

Sarah interrupted him. There was no reason her dad was so nervous unless for the routine request. "Say no more. You have an important business trip and Irene is coming with you."

"Well, yes." Sarah winced, but hid it well. "But this time - you and Toby are coming with us."

Now THAT surprised her. She couldn't hide it. _What? Since when?_

"Really? Does that mean you finally got the promotion you wanted?"

Robert gleamed, Irene smiled with him.

"That's right sweetie! Your father is now an official employee of Lloyd's Bank! Tomorrow we're going to the airport to book our tickets. Say goodbye to this smelly neighbourhood, because in a month's time, we will all permanently move to the one and only Swinging City, London!" he said theatrically, before Irene stopped him from more of his ramblings.

What was that silence?

Oh right. They were waiting for her response.

 _Silly girl. Play your part._

"Congratulations daddy!" Sarah rushed to hug him. "I couldn't have been happier!"

"Really? Are you serious?" Robert enquired, "I'm, I'm-" And he burst out crying. Just like that.

As Sarah comforted her father alongside Irene, she pondered about her current situation. There she was, coming from her sweet sixteen birthday party with her close friends, after just discovering an unexpected gift on her desk. Who would've thought, less than a few hours later, she would find out she was going to leave everything she had built all her life behind her.

There was nothing she could do for now. _Just smile._

"Better now?" Sarah asked her father. Robert looked up, wiping his tears with the napkin she gave him. They discussed for hours, about her and Toby's education, where the house was going to be located and about their future in general. Afterwards, Robert kissed her goodnight, but not before asking her the question that obviously bugged him the whole night.

"You're really not mad at me?" Sarah shook her head. "Not at all daddy. You go rest now."

Irene looked back. "If you need anything… we're here for you dear."

"Thank you… thank you, the both of you." Sarah meant that.

Robert smiled, like the way he used to all those years ago.

He closed the door behind him. Sarah kept staring at the door.

He did it again. He dumped a big bomb at her feet, then expected her to pick it up.

How was she supposed to feel? Angry? Numb? Amused? And on a birthday, just like the good old days. If she wasn't used to his absent mindedness, she'd think her dad did it on purpose.

In a way though, she understood.

The house must've reminded him of her mother as much as it reminded her. Every wall, every painting, every creak. Everything that was in the house had her mother's touch put into it. It was comforting a long time ago. It had felt like she never left. Now it's just suffocating.

And tiring.

She could her Irene and Robert discuss together downstairs. They sound really happy.

Sarah went back on her bed. There was one way she could cope with this situation. She reached for her bedside table and- wait. Where's the book? Where did her book go?

She got up, looking under her bed. There it was. It must've fallen off the table.

She opened her favourite book, as she always did since that day. The red cover still looked brand new. _You would think I bought this yesterday_. Sarah mused, with inner pride that only a book lover would appreciate. She opened it. _Chapter 1 – The White Owl…_

Goddammit. She wasn't supposed to cry. She was supposed to be better than that.

Sarah placed the book on her face, letting the tears flow down. If they had to leave, so be it.

Perhaps she'll find happiness elsewhere. Anywhere but this horrible house…

The bracelet felt tighter around her wrist that night.

Perhaps it was just her childish imagination.

 **Author's Notes**

 **Hello everyone. Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please rate and review.**

 **Thank you for your encouraging review SheyrinalLabyrinthianDragon. Much appreciated!**

 **Many thanks to everyone who read this story.**

 **The next chapter will hopefully be released in a month's time.**

 **Labyrinth belongs to the Henson Family and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.**


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